1. Norby has just made an OXZ for the original OXP of 'The Dark Rainbow', and Duggan followed it up with flight & combat testing with POSITIVE results (see the couple posts made on January 2016 - page #7 of this thread).

2. It follows, at least in my understanding, that 'The Dark Rainbow' is now fully compatible and functional with Oolite v1.82, which launched on May 2015 and is the current version of the game as of today.

3. As of the time of this post, the OXZ for 'The Dark Rainbow' is not yet available thru the in-game OXZ manager. I believe Norby will be taking care of that Soon™. The OXZ for 'The Dark Rainbow' is now available in-game at version 1.1 !

5. I would invite any new users of 'The Dark Rainbow' (and ofc all of the 'old' ones), to browse this thread for: . . . . - assorted flight & combat tips applicable to this particular ship ; . . . . - one fix for a [rare] graphical glitch ; DISREGARD: Fix now included in OXZ 1.1 ! . . . . - a copy-paste recipe for a substantial performance improvement within a certain script (see last post made in 2013) ; DISREGARD: The improved script will now be automagically inherited from the most recent version of Neocaduceus.OXZ, which is a pre-req for 'The Dark Rainbow' OXZ. . . . . - other assorted goodies (and a few more-or-less-funny jokes).

1. This 'STATUS UPDATE' is a work-in-progress, as it right now conveys some basic information that I'd like to make immediately available ... until some further time where I *might* add some more gory details. But what follows is the meat of it.

2. From a technical and 'flyability' standpoint, as Commander Duggan has joyfully reported a couple days ago (as stated in THIS POST - 2014.08.12), The Dark Rainbow remains flying in its full force and awesomeness under Oolite version 1.80. Not many OXPs can claim a similar long-term 'versioning resilience' ...

3. From an 'OXP paternity' and 'maintenance & support' standpoints, we might right now call 'The Dark Rainbow' -orphan- and -abandoned- (as in, no updates have been made since September 2011). OTOH, and true to its nature as an offspring of the equally awesome Caduceus, it seems to keep flying all by itself and gleefully shunning all considerations about remakes & updates, as demonstrated by #2 .

4. From a 'licensing' and/or 'adoptability' standpoint, a somewhat lengthy and ... terribly boring! discussion has been going on during the last week or so (you might wish to take a look at a series of posts starting with THIS ONE from August 10, 2014). TL;DR - the relevant points are:

4.1. - the following statement, made by me :

Quote:

I hereby give permission to anyone willing to modify, improve, expand, re-code, re-document, re-pack, rename, and re-upload "The Dark Rainbow" pseudo-OXP, to do so as he might wish, without requiring any further explicit request to me or explicit consent from me.

4.2. - the general perception of the community that, being an offspring (as in, a 'modified version') of The Caduceus, The Dark Rainbow automatically inherits the licensing terms put forth by its author ClymAngus, regardless of whatever other statements that I - sdrubble - might make as the author of The Dark Rainbow ;

4.3. - ClymAngus's willingness (as stated in THIS POST - 2014.08.13) to allow anyone else to take over any further maintenance & improvements to The Dark Rainbow ;

4.4. - ... so it all comes to this : whoever wants to embrace any/all of the tasks mentioned in 4.1, is henceforth totally free to do so. I would personally welcome (but by all means, I would NOT 'require'!) a PM to myself, or a post in this thread, by anyone interested. I'd also *STRONGLY* suggest that ClymAngus be PM'ed as well.

WARNING !!! - This offering is an unbalanced, overpowered, hiper-uber ship that will most certainly spoil the traditional gaming pleasure out of all seasoned Commanders.
Proceed at your own risk... you have been warned.

HANDWAVIUM:

Quote:

===================================================================================================
From a recent issue of 'What Spaceship?' magazine:

Skavurzka Shipyards, a semi-private enterprise associated to the
Communist government of Vetitice and strategically located at the center
of Galaxy I, has been recently making a non-standard inroad into the
high-end ship market.

Details have been somewhat sketchy (no press-release up to the moment),
although the availability of the new 'Dark Rainbow' ship is indeed
confirmed.

From what we could gather up from various undisclosed sources, it seems
that the Caduceus class of ships, ooniversally known for its somewhat
misterious biotech nature, has spawned a higher-specced version of
itself. The mysterious-clad 'Homunculus' word - floating around in some
muffled talks aroung the Ooniverse's underground hubs - comes to mind.
However, in practical terms, little (if anything at all) is known, up to
the moment, about such mythical offspring of the original mighty vessel.

However, and back to our real world, one sure fact is that Boris
Ripoffski, the lead designer from the Spaceship Research & Design Bureau
of the Communist Cevege government, and seemingly a strong admirer of
Udian Shulth's work, has managed to coach what originally was a somewhat
spontaneous cellular mutation into a more meaningful variation of a
Caduceus. And the ongoing interchange of ideas and technology among the
multiple Communist worlds of Galaxy I came to fruition onto the
corresponding new ship variation coming out from Skavurzka Shipyards.

We had an interesting off-the-record conversation with Mr. Ripoffski.
While he declined to comment further over any details around the
mutation process, he indeed described a new technology application of an
already-known product, which is being put to VERY good use aboard the
new ship.

It seems that Dr. Sergei Scrofushenko, Dean of Applied Astronautics
Research at the People's University at the high-tech Inines Communist
world, has spent a lot of time evaluating the workings of the
traditional HyperCargo system. Mr. Ripoffski told us that, working
closely with Dr. Scrofushenko which is an old friend of his, they've
managed to extend the 'virtualizing' capacity originally provided by
HyperCargo towards additional spaceship fittings, while also making
substantial advancements to the stability of any virtualized space and
of the contents thereof. The end result is that, without any alteration
to the spaceframe and structure of the original Caduceus, they've
managed to substantially increase not only the ships's cargo capacity,
but also the holding space for flight machinery and equipment. They're
both very proud that the 'Dark Rainbow', while having increased cargo
space, can also hold more missile pylons... and even MORE so, since
that, owing to the patent-pending tweaks and enhancements they've
applied to the original HyperCargo technology, prospective Commanders of
the 'Dark Rainbow' will still have the option of additionally employing
the traditional HyperCargo system (which of course will, in this case,
retain its original stability shortcomings).

We also enjoyed some fine time with Natasha Zhukovskaya, lead test pilot
for Skavurzka. The fondness and love she has for the ship that her team
tested - she indeed employed the word 'trained', instead - transpires in
her every word. She also let us know of one interesting detail involving
the distinctive biotech nature of the ship.

What happens is, some units of the 'Dark Rainbow' will assume by
themselves, within the ships' personality module, the alternative name
of 'Warty Popsicle'. This seemingly stems from the initial testing
stages, when some female members of the testing crew affectionately
addressed one of the early prototypes as such. This alternative name
seemingly ingrained itself into at least one of the ship's genetic
sub-strains... it is yet unknown if any 'Dark Rainbow' customer,
eventually displeased with this punny naming, would be able to revert
this.

The 'Dark Rainbow' is not usually 'sold' as a ship in the traditional
sense, but rather comes as a do-it-yourself genetic modification kit,
easily made available throughout the Galaxy. One might of course opt for
not running the improbable risk of a borked in-house mutation result and
prefer to lay his/her hands on a REAL, ready-to-fly Dark Rainbow
instead... and expect in this case to pay about twice the price of the
DIY kit.

In a much appropriate fashion for an unique, elitist luxury item, its
price is NOT disclosed or published anywhere in sight. Prospective
customers should be most pleased to negotiate personally and directly
with Skavurzka's central sales office (no reps !!!) over how much they
would actually WISH to pay (erm... 'invest'). However it seems that,
once negotiation is done, delivery of the upgrade kits can be quickly
arranged to almost any Ooniverse station.

Skavurzka will also arrange by request, in a package deal, that many
advanced pieces of generally-available spaceship equipment be delivered
together with the upgrade kit, so that busy Commanders can be spared the
hassle of having to hunt around multiple space stations for the many
individual parts one usually adds to a brand-new ship.

We were also told that Skavurzka backs their offering with a full
money-back guarantee. Of course, since at least in probabilistic theory
the mutation done by the customer crew MIGHT produce some undesired
results, it actually comes down to a ship-back guarantee. In this case
the dissatisfied customer would dispatch the unwanted mutated result
back to Skavurzka, and sometime later (how long ???) receive a new or
refurbished Caduceus. We expect that in this (improbable ?) case, an
available Caduceus, which in itself is already a hard-to-find item,
might take a few months to come by in order to be returned to the
customer... we're not aware, though, of a single unhappy Commander of a
'Dark Rainbow' up to this moment.

As the readers have undoubtedly noticed, EVERYTHING around this unusual
offer is accordingly unusual. Stay tuned for an upcoming test flight and
thorough hands-on review.

At some point ClymAngus, the author of the neoCaduceus OXP, entered the discussion, and after a couple of interactions, gave his consent (here!) for a possible new OXP based on that work. That's when the 'publish!' bell started to ring on me.

However, and for a number of reasons, I'm not quite sure yet if what I'm presenting here would indeed deserve a new, full, standalone OXP. It fully works though, at least in what regards my own purposes, as a retrofit-and-transmogrify kit for the original Caddy. So, for the moment at least, it remains as such.

In the download I'm providing, there are instructions for installing The DARK RAINBOW either with or without the original Caduceus ships.

SHIP DESCRIPTION:

So without further ado, what's significant about The DARK RAINBOW after all? Let's see...

* two new fore and aft plasma turrets, in addition to the 8 original ones (top, bottom and broadsides) which are standard on the Caduceus Omega.

* a distinctive ship appearance (although without any really innovative graphic elements), mostly due to the UGLY new turret below its chin and also, to a lesser extent, to the new turret sitting above the rear engines. BTW this latter one resembles, when seen from some of the external views, a really graphic 'iron ass'... you might as well say that The DARK RAINBOW as a whole is butt-ugly, or maybe - and more appropriately - ****-ugly [insert your favorite phallic slang wording here].

BTW I'm SURE that at least one person around here will attempt changing the specs for the vertical offset of the front turret, and post screenshots showing what he got. There's always some people around who like to play and show with this kind of stuff...

* multiple different bright colors for the plasma rounds (that's the main reason behind the ship's name). Special care was taken to assure that the backwards firing turret ended up spitting a carefully crafted blend of brown stuff (and one surely NOT to be found within Oolite's default color pallette). This final touch is meant to add up to the general flavor - erm, smell...? - of the ship.

* improved firing rates for all turrets, all of them slightly outsynced (on purpose) for added visual oomph.

* improved accuracy for all turrets.

* number of pylons increased from 10 to 16.

* cargo capacity increased from 50 to 180t.

* lots of STANDARD iron-assing equipment.

* general availability at whatever systems.

* increased price tag [you WILL certainly curse at your first maintenance overhaul bill - expect to PAY accordingly for all the power over, under and around the hood].

* [starting from version 2011.09.14_A]better resilience in furball battles (namely, no turrets will be shot off any more). Due to [b][color=#0000FF]frangible[/color][/b] tweaks, implemented as per this thread .

* [starting from version 2011.09.14_A] substantial reduction of maintenance overhaul costs (no need to replace, and pay for, missing turrets & engines). Due to the same [b][color=#0000FF]frangible[/color][/b] tweaks named on previous item.

* [starting from Oolite version 1.76.1] substantial increase in turret power . Due to a codefix applied on the base game by the Oolite team. See various posts further on this thread, starting from this one.

NAMING:

Alternative naming for the ship has been floating around. "Warty Popsicle" is one (see handwavium); ClymAngus himself hinted at yet another alternative (still pending some clarification); and of course anyone else with creative ideas should feel free to jump in with suggestions.

TEST PILOT'S NOTES:

This ship endorses, and in fact seemingly REQUIRES, a less adrenaline-based approach at combat (good for lazy, laid-back, aging, slow-reflexes, wealthy traders and hunters). So that instead of the usual full head-on jousts, one would do frequently better by just performing a two o'clock fly-by, hit the brakes at 3 km, plan for the next target, optionally switch views to enjoy the colorful fireworks, and most likely do a U-turn to scoop the remains. (A screenshot action sequence, which can be found on one of the following posts, graphically illustrates the concept.)

Sidewinders, Asps and Pythons usually require a second fly-by. Sorry, no Thargoid encounters happened during the short test flights, so nothing to report here.

I can also report 2 instances where turret fire was actually SEEN downing missiles (certainly not by design though).

The ship's standard energy units (reinforced with an 'Extra', and NOT with a 'Naval' one) have performed gracefully in all situations, even when [a maximum of] 5 turrets were firing simultaneously. But I don't think that under 'normal' usage any given turret would be firing for more than 10-15 seconds in a row.

Eric Walch for the fire_rate coding hints and also for the advice over
mixing-and-matching coding styles.

numerous participants in various pre-existant forum threads, from which I've scooped
precious tips and concepts.

Additional concepts:

one still-unnamed Commander [who ?] who posted somewhere in the Forum
[where ? ... when ?] about HIS own tweaked Caddy with Boa-II-like cargo
capacity and increased number of pylons, whose idea I've unabashedly
borrowed.

I'm certain that this kind of toy would spoil the fun-factor out of most seasoned Commanders. But since at least this one awkward Commander here has been really having fun with this - and since anybody can tweak down The DARK RAINBOW's awesomeness as much as he/she likes, so as to suit his/her own playing style - there might be in fact, after all, some small niche for this overpowering ship.

The closest, most similar to The DARK RAINBOW, 'real' thing that comes to my mind would be the AC-130. Would-be DARK RAINBOW Commanders might first wish to picture themselves at the pilot's seat of this toy here ...

All manner of suggestions and comments are warmly welcome, regarding the ship's specs, coding, handwavium and the whole shebang.

So, download this beast and start enjoying - and / or bashing (the author...) !!!

TODO:

* address an issue where Military Lasers, which were intended to come pre-fitted fore and aft, in fact don't (it's beyond my knowledge at this point).* publish my suggested railgun settings for the ship.* add to 'Credits' file: great thx to Capt. Murphy for prodding me to insist (once again) and get (finally !!!) a previously unreachable (to me only...) free account on Box.com.

. . . . 2 (4shared.com):Dark_Rainbow(Tweak_to_neocaduceus.oxp)_2011.09.14_A.zip (17 Kb - click the URL, download should start immediately). Public availability STARTED on 2012.04.04 - RENEWED on 2012.06.30 - expected to be good for download until 2012.12.28.. Note that,in order to download, 4shared might require you to login first (it can be done with a FREE account, which you can setup in a couple minutes).

You'll probably need to apply gamma correction on your desktop for better viewing.Some thoughts on gamma tweakability can be found here.

This is a sequence where an innocent Viper pilot is unknowingly lured into starring in a discomfortable role as PR material for the DARK RAINBOW fighting abilities.

The single, initial come-and-get-me short laser burst is not shown in the pictures, which are an exclusive show-off of the ship fighting for itself. The DARK RAINBOW Commander DID apply some entirely optional roll-pitch-decelerate-and-yaw beautifying coreography, though.

Still pending a possible fix to properly present thumbnails from PicasaWeb.

It's a truly horrible download site. You need to click the green "slow download" link about half way down and towards the right, then type in the captcha words that appear. Then wait for a countdown and finally you should get the download.

An introduction to box.net or something friendlier is very much required...

It's a truly horrible download site. You need to click the green "slow download" link about half way down and towards the right, then type in the captcha words that appear. Then wait for a countdown and finally you should get the download.

An introduction to box.net or something friendlier is very much required...

Indeed Thargoid...

Box.net had indeed been my initial choice at upload time. However I had thought it was a FREE hosting site, while to my surprise what I actually found there were three account options - Personal, Business and Enterprise. The 'Personal' option costs $9.99, which I'd rather not spend at the moment.

I've done a short research of alternative free uploading sites, and didn't find much of a difference between most of them. I do recognize that the download method isn't the most user-friendly around, but as far as my knowledge goes it's the same old soggy download routine at rapidfiles.com, megaupload.com etc.

So the download link will unfortunately, for the moment, remain where it is. I have a Dropbox account which I'm not sure if it would be considered acceptable... And of course, I'm willing to make the file available at any other free upload place that some one would recommend.

Wait a minute, just thought of Google Docs... I'll investigate this in a moment.

I am not seeing anything from clicking that link, that is obviously the problem. Never mind I will not bother. I am not willing to turn all my protection off.

Well, if this can be of any help, I tested the download myself - twice - just after uploading it.

I use ZoneAlarm firewall under WinXP, and did NOT have to make any special allowance for the download to come in.

I use Firefox 6.0.1 with NoScript, and all I had to do to see the captcha and countdown was to do a quick 'temporary allow' of the hosting site. Since it's a 15 Kb download, after the countdown is over (and you click 'Download' once again) the file comes in instantaneously. After that, just restart Firefox and you'll be just as protected as before.

I think the smoother way of doing things would be to boost the gamma in the screenshots themselves, as I doubt many will want to fiddle with the gamma-correction for their monitors everytime they want to look at screenshots.
Can easily (and even batch-wise) be applied with e.g. irfanview.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irfanview

Your ship, I keep this in mind, should the days come where my hands or my mind are not flexible and quick enough anymore to survive with a "normal" iron-ass ship.